The ASE Council on Cardiovascular Sonography is proud to announce Kathy Olejnik, BS, RDCS, ACS, FASE, as this month’s Sonographer Volunteer of the Month.

Learn more about Ms. Olejnik and how she got involved in cardiovascular ultrasound, began volunteering for ASE, and more here.

Registration for the ASE 2021 Virtual Experience closes on August 31, 2021, at midnight Eastern Time. The sooner you register, the more time you have to access this one-of-a-kind educational content and earn up to 58 CME/MOC points! View some highlights here, then register today to have access to all the other fantastic content until September 15, 2021.

All the live networking events and Q&A sessions were recorded, so you can experience what happened live as well as the pre-recorded presentations. Don’t miss out, register today!

What Attendees are Saying About ASE 2021

“Fantastic, highly academic program and exceptional delivery” 

“It was the best virtual learning experience I have ever had!”

The ASE Echo Image Calendar has become a very popular member renewal gift over the past seven years. Members are encouraged to upload cardiovascular images for the 2022 Image Calendar Contest by Monday, August 9. Please include a brief description of your image. Voting for the favorite images to be included in the colorful, 12-month calendar will close on Tuesday, September 7. All members who renew by December 31, 2021 will receive the 2022 calendar in the mail*.

To upload your images, head to the ASE 2021 Calendar Contest Library on Connect@ASE:

1. Log in to Connect@ASEusing your ASE username (email address) and password.
2. Using the left navigation, scroll to Libraries.
3. Click on Image Library.
4. Click on the folder called ASE 2022 Calendar Contest.
5. Click “Upload Resource” under Folder Contents and upload your image. Image files need to be no larger than 30 MB.
6. Upload as many images as you would like.
7. Please include a title and brief description of your image.

Please note that this competition is open to members only. If you have any questions, please contact Arissa Cooper at ACooper@ASEcho.org.

*Not including members who live in locations that are not served by the USPS

The current Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography (JASE) will be ending his term on December 31, 2022, and the search is underway for the exceptional person who will take on leading JASE’s editorial efforts. Applications are due August 15, 2021.

The successful candidate will begin working closely with the current Editor-in-Chief, Michael H. Picard, MD, FASE, on July 1, 2022, to ensure a smooth transition. Learn how to apply here.

Please submit applications and direct any questions to Deborah R. Meyer, JASE Managing Editor, at DMeyer@ASEcho.org.

Karen G. Zimmerman, BS, ACS, RDCS, RVT, FASE, and L. Leonardo Rodriguez, MD, FASE, FACC, accepted the offer six years ago to become the founding editors of CASE, ASE’s cardiovascular imaging case reports journal. Their tenure ends this coming Sunday. ASE is incredibly grateful to them both for their vision and exceptional leadership. Alan S. Pearlman, MD, FASE, JASE Emeritus Editor-in-Chief and ASE Past President, put it best in his recent congratulatory remarks to them. “Starting from scratch, founding co-Editors-in-Chief Karen Zimmerman and Leonardo Rodriguez have done an amazing job in developing an established and highly regarded open access Journal that uses well-written and clearly illustrated case reports to provide effective teaching points. The next CASE Editor-in-Chief is fortunate to inherit editorial responsibility for CASE from two dedicated, hard-working All-Star Founding Editors.” Our collective hats off to them as the journal transitions under new leadership.

On July 19, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the calendar year (CY) 2022 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS)/Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) Proposed Rule. The rule will be posted in the Federal Register on August 4, 2021 with comments due to CMS no later than September 19, 2021.   

What you need to know:

• The conversion factors increase 2.3% to $84.46 for hospital outpatient departments
• Echocardiography services are projected to increase ~3%. See chart here.
• CMS is proposing to re-instate the Inpatient Only (IPO) List for 298 services.
• For CY2022, CMS is proposing to halt the elimination of the IPO list and, to add the 298 services removed from the IPO list in CY 2021 back to the IPO list beginning in CY 2022. This change in policy would ensure that any service removed from the IPO list has been reviewed against Medicare’s longstanding IPO list criteria to determine if it is appropriate for Medicare to pay for the provision of the service in the outpatient setting. Furthermore, CMS is proposing to codify the longstanding criteria for removal of procedures from the IPO list to make clear in regulatory text how they will evaluate future procedures for removal.

More information:

• The CY 2022 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System Proposed Rule
• CMS press release
• Fact sheet summarizing the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM)

ASE’s Advocacy Committee will be providing comments to CMS on behalf of ASE. Once the rules are finalized, we will provide a webinar for members to review the changes and impacts.

ASE is now accepting applications for 2022 Society Awards. These awards will be presented at the 33rd Annual Scientific Sessions in Seattle, Washington, June 2022. Check out the links below to see how you may nominate someone (or yourself!) for an award.

• Physician Lifetime Achievement Award
• Sonographer Lifetime Achievement Award
• Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award
• Meritorious Service Award 
• ASE Mentorship Award
• Outstanding Achievement in Perioperative Echocardiography 
• Founders’ Award for Lifetime Achievement in Echocardiography for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease
• NEW: Council of Circulation & Vascular Ultrasound (CAVUS) Luminary Award 

Make sure you do not miss the upcoming deadline of August 1, 2021. If you have any questions, please contact Awards@ASEcho.org.

Episode 5 of the weekly JASE Podcast Summer Series is now available here. In this episode, Nicholas Grubic, BScH, MSc, joins Amer Johri, MD, FASE, to discuss the paper: “Natural History of Moderate Aortic Stenosis with Preserved and Low Ejection Fraction” by Mann et al. from the July 2021 issue of JASE. Learn more about moderate aortic stenosis and its relationship with patient mortality in this interesting paper. Sit back, plug in, learn, and enjoy!

If you have missed any of the podcasts from the 2021 Summer Series, you can listen to all of the episodes here.

On July 13, 2021, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the CY 2022 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) Rule. The rule:

• Proposes a decrease to the MPFS conversion factor, to be $33.58. This is a $1.31 decrease from the CY2021 PFS conversion factor of $34.89. The MPFS conversion factor reflects the expiration of the 3.75 percent payment increase provided for CY2021 by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA). ASE will be working to secure congressional action to avert cuts to physician payments next year as physician practices across the country continue to recover from the pandemic.
• CMS accepted ASE’s proposal of a new add on CPT Code 3D Imaging of Cardiac Structures (CPT code 933X0).
• CMS is proposing to begin the payment penalty phase of the Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) Program. Please note this program is focused on advanced imaging services and does not include echocardiography services

Read the Comparison of CY2021 Final – CY2022 Proposed MPFS Rates for Echocardiography.

Click here for more information.

ASE is beginning our analysis of the Proposed Rule and will provide a summary analysis and fee schedule impacts for members promptly.

Join moderators, Alina Nicoara, MD, FASE, and G. Burkhard Mackensen, MD, PhD, FASE, along with speakers, John Haney, MD; Sunil Mankad, MD, FASE; Rick Meece, ACS, RCS, RDCS, RCIS, FASE; Lara Oyetunji, MD; and Angela Pollak, MD, for a FREE live webinar, Decision Making In Complex Endocarditis on July 28, 2021 at 7:00 PM ET.

This webinar will focus on the complexities of diagnosis and decision making in infective endocarditis diagnosis. The importance of a team approach as well as clinical and ethical implications will be highlighted.

Registration is FREE for everyone, so please forward this to your colleagues. You can claim 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™ within 48 hours of watching the webinar.

1. To register, log in to your ASE member portal.
2. Select the ASE Learning Hub from the top red menu.
3. Register for the webinar here.

The webinar recording will also be posted on the ASE Learning Hub for on-demand viewing and CME credit.